Digging It Up

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More About

• Montmartre
• Charles Aznavour
• Yong Han
• Piet Mondrian
• Maurice Utrillo

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In his 1965 song "La Bohème," Charles Aznavour laments the changes he sees in a Paris neighborhood: "At the top of a staircase/ I look for an atelier/ Of which nothing survives/ In its new décor/ Montmartre seems sad." At "Ancient City," the theme is San Francisco's changing landscape, and the parallels with Montmartre don't end there: not only does the art recall the work of Maurice Utrillo, Henry Moore, Piet Mondrian, and other Parisian friends and visitors of the 1910s-'40s, but the project is presented in a gallery that's about to be torn down. Fifteen or so artists present sculpture, lightboxes, and a wealth of abstract oils. Many have peeling layers, use industrial materials, or in the case of Alexandre Koulouris' Alexander Calderish mobiles, hang precariously. The strong verticals in Yong Han's metal sculptures recall rebar, and Mitchell Confer's landscapes make us think of Malvina Reynolds' great old song about South San Francisco's "ticky-tacky houses" and how they changed the cultural landscape back in the 1960s. "Ancient City" helps place us in the continuum of changing places, from Montmartre to Glen Park.
Feb. 21-March 1, 2008